Mike Phillips, the Wales scrum-half, remains brim full of confidence despite
recent set-backs as he forges a new life in Paris.

A couple of stories about the Wales scrum-half Mike Phillips. The first comes after the Wales versus England match last season, in which Wales had recorded a resounding 30-3 victory to claim the title, and also in which most of their players had confirmed places on the British and Irish Lions tour to Australia.

Phillips had had a quite magnificent match, and had been substituted just before the end. As the final whistle blew, he turned to Sam Warburton and Gethin Jenkins, who were sitting on the bench beside him. Slapping them on their legs, he said “See you on the Lions, boys!” and walked off laughing.

The second story. On that Lions tour Phillips was appointed as a tour guide, alongside England’s Dan Cole, who amused his team-mates by providing lots of highbrow information about every venue visited.

Phillips was a little different. When the squad reached Melbourne, Phillips took to the microphone one morning to remind the players that singer Kylie Minogue is from Melbourne.

“There was once a rumour that we went out together,” he said. “It was huge global news at the time and a reporter asked Kylie: ‘Is it right that you go out with the rugby international superstar Mike Phillips?’ To which Kylie replied ‘I should be so lucky, lucky, lucky…’”

How the Lions laughed apparently. And so, if the truth be told, did the small group of journalists present at the Wales camp laugh when Phillips was at it again last Tuesday. Asked about the expected size of crowd for yesterday’s match between Racing Metro and Toulouse at Stade de France, Phillips replied: “I’m playing, so it’s probably a full house.”

Phillips is cocky, especially on the field when on form, where he often struts and gesticulates while displaying the physicality of the flanker he was as a schoolboy.

It can irk some, and his reputation is not helped by the number of off-field scrapes in which he has found himself, the latest ending with his sacking by French club Bayonne last October. Most of those scrapes have involved the consumption of alcohol.

But most of the time he just loves playing up to that cocky image for fun. In reality, Phillips is very softly spoken, almost inaudible at times. Those who know him say that deep down he is a good man, and he is certainly a generous and thoughtful one, judging by his recent sponsorship of the under-sevens’ team at his former west Wales club, Whitland.

Phillips bristled slightly when asked about some perceived slow starts to international campaigns — “Two years ago in the first match in Dublin I was man of the match, so I don’t know where that comes from,” he said — but otherwise he was obviously very keen not to say anything controversial or outlandish.

He is just an international rugby player, even one aged 31 with some grey flecks in his beard and 80 caps for his country, who is hugely excited about the forthcoming Six Nations, as Wales seek to win a record-breaking third successive outright title. One should never underestimate the thrill of this competition.

“It’s great to be back in Wales, to be back in camp and see all the boys,” he said. “Representing your country, playing in the Millennium Stadium, everybody is watching.”

Phillips is, of course, now at Racing Metro, alongside international colleagues Jamie Roberts and Dan Lydiate, after the Bayonne bust-up.

“I think I needed to be in a big city, either London or Paris,” he says. “I think they [Racing] were on the radar for me for next year anyway. Things happened [at Bayonne], and you have got to deal with that, but at the moment I am pretty happy. Being in Paris is pretty cool.”

After three months staying in a hotel, he now has his own flat. “I’ve settled in well,” he says. “There are a few things that I need to settle — I need to sort out my internet and my Sky!”

He might not want to watch too many of Racing’s recent matches on television, however. Racing have been quite dreadful, especially when losing at home to the Scarlets in the Heineken Cup. In fairness Phillips was an exception, looking particularly lively in the first half.

“I haven’t had much game time since I’ve been there,” he says. “In a way that has been quite good for me. It’s a great team that can improve. It’s a new collective and a new group of coaches. It will take time but hopefully we can get there.”

The worry, though, is fitness. Warren Gatland has previously questioned the conditioning of those players returning from France, where the work ethic during the week does not always match the rabid intensity of match play, and Lydiate was noticeably off the pace during the recent autumn series. “They do things differently,” he says. “It’s their culture. You have got to accept that.”

Hopefully Phillips has been doing extra training. He is key to Wales’ game plan. But he needs to be fit to do that.